Quote:
Originally Posted by Spaceman
.I wish our skyline looked like Dubai.
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Really? Obviously it's a difference of opinion so I certainly am not judging or mocking you for liking Dubai's skyline, but do you really like it enough to wish Austin had the same?
I've had this conversation with a couple people over the past couple years, but there's a reason I dislike Dubai's skyline (and to that effect, many other cities around the world). Mainly, I think it stems from the fact that almost 100% (or in Dubai's case, literally 100%) of the development has come in the past 10 or 15 years, where we've really only seen one architectural style. Every single building in Dubai, no matter how wild or crazy they look individually, is the same hyper-modern style, and I think it ends up looking like nonsense. Dubai's buildings look cool individually, but all together, their skyline is garbled, and looking at the streets, it's almost like there are no streets at all, and they're all separated by highways. Granted, in Dubai, it's just too dang hot to be walking around outside very far, but going through their downtown is like a driving tour of a bunch of modern sculptures. When a new 1000+ foot building is built there, it's done with no real thought as to how it will interact with the buildings around it, or how it will fit into the city as a whole. They are all built as something that, standing alone, "looks unique and wild."
Compare this to my two examples, which IMO are the best looking skylines in the world: NYC and Chicago. Both have had relatively sustained levels of development over the past 100+ years, leading to tons of different architectural styles, and tons of thought going into buildings built there that isn't going into new construction elsewhere. I mean, there's no city in the world that's about to construct a Chrysler Tower or a John Hancock center, and certainly none that are building them right next to a beautiful beaux-arts building. New buildings going up in these cities, and even height-limited cities like D.C., are all planned with a certain consideration for how they fit into the city as a whole, and how they can benefit the people living around them. It might not be a conscious thought, but it's there. Sure there are exceptions (looking at you, 432 Park Avenue), but for the most part, and new building built in these cities is a genuine positive addition to the city and to the experience of people visiting or living there. Can the same be said about any of the dozens of crazy-orange-spiral-behemoths being built in Dubai, Moscow, Hong Kong, etc?
I've said this previously looking at one of the newest photos of Austin, and I think it bears repeating. Austin is starting to look like Vancouver, and not in a good way. In 2002 or so, Vancouver had one of the coolest skylines. But, around that time, a ton of new people moved there (mostly from Hong Kong, if I remember right), and starting creating crazy demand for condos. And in the 10 years succeeding that, there have been dozens and dozens of condos built there, all of which look the exact same: off white, with extruding balconies and blue glass windows. It completely overshadows the rest of the cool looking buildings in the city, and I fear that's what's happening to Austin if we keep building off-white/blue condos, and blue-glass office buildings.
I mean, look at the past few tall-ish buildings built in Austin. Do any of them not fit this mold? 360, Spring, Bowie, Seaholm, Austin Proper, Se7en, etc., all are basically cut from the same off-white and blue glass cloth. And for just blue glass, we've got: 303 Colorado, the JW Marriot (this has a couple distict features to where it still looks pretty good, I'll admit), the Fairmont (the worst offender of them all), the W, 500 W. 2nd Street, 3rd and Shoal, 5th and Colorado, 5th and West, The Avenue, The latest plans for Waller Park Place, and even arguably the Austonian. etc.
Looking at all of the 15+ floor buildings built since 2005, there are really a select few that aren't looking like this: Northshore (although not very different), The Hotel Van Zandt, 405 Colorado (terrible for a different reason), Rise on 8th (or whatever it's going to be called now), Hotel Zaza, and maybe 70 Rainey.
I sure don't like the idea of 70% of the new buildings in Austin looking just like the other ones. And I think that leads me back to why Dubai is a worst-case-scenario for Austin. If there aren't diverse architectural ideas coming into development, we're going to end up with a boring looking city where the only underlying thought going through each developer's head is "get this building done quickly and efficiently so we can start making money off of it," instead of building which make the city a better place to live even if you never end up going inside of them.
p.s. sorry for the long rant.
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